by Atul Todi
Drink today and drown your sorrow,
Who knows what's in store tomorrow.
In my arms, I wanna taste your breath,
May we drink together, till our death."
Everyone was stunned for a moment; there was complete silence. No one ever made an announcement like that in a club. Abhay too was stunned by his braveheart move. The DJ being an old friend did him a favor by letting him make that toast.
Once he was done with the toast and walked back, some in the drunk crowd clapped and cheered him while other jeered him. Soon the DJ turned the music back on, and everyone went back to whatever they were doing earlier.
The tension brewing earlier between Abhay and Tia subsided; something that was off earlier was back to normal. Seeing Abhay walk back towards her, Tia had a smile on her face that had been missing all night and was giggling.
She was laughing at the absurd toast Abhay made in response to her romantic one. He was a true alcoholic and a bad lover. Still, she loved him just the way he was.
Joining her back at the bar after making the toast, before she could say anything to him, he asked her for a dance. She said yes, and they gently jived in each other's arms. The night suddenly slowed down, and the loud music faded into the background.
Holding her close, he felt shivers running down her body. It has been a while since they danced intimately; it had not happened since the night in Panama City. She looked into his eyes, appreciating his making a toast to cheer her up. He just smiled back at her, unable to hide the fact that she meant a lot to him.
The night proceeded in an unplanned fashion.
She swayed in his arms as the crowd disappeared and music became mellow.
Shutting her eyes and head tilted back, her long curly black hair with chocolate brown and ombre caramel highlights ran amok across her sweltering face. She breathed heavily, but her heartbeat was calm. Her nails, digging into his back, made sure their bodies were in close contact.
With his hands around her waist and his head resting on her shoulder, he could smell the intense notes of jasmine, smoky chamomile and sandalwood in the perfume she had on. Already enchanted by the way she held onto him, her smell intoxicated his senses. He could feel her burning body pressing against him and taste the sweat trickling down her neck as she danced in a trance.
His mind was hypnotized by her love; he wanted her desperately.
Mixed with the intense sexual energy there was a feeling of great comfort to be with her. Happy to be holding her in his arm, he wanted nothing but her. He wanted to make love to her and let go of all his hidden inhibition.
He had wanted her since that night in Panama City, but had controlled himself on all those lonely nights they spent together. That night at ‘Cactus’ she had him entranced. Maybe it was the toast she made in the wine class, but his mind was out of control and his imagination had taken wings.
She did everything to encourage him; she too had been waiting patiently for him to make a move.
Sneaking out of the club, like two lovebirds hiding from being seen by anyone, they went to the lake on campus. Known as the ‘lovers point’, the lake had many romantic stories of its own. It was widely known that if two people kissed each other and took a dip in the lake, they were destined to fall in love for eternity.
Being drunk, Tia ran around the lake. Abhay chased her, pleading her to be careful. She wanted to go stand in the middle of a raised wooden deck on the rear side of the lake and watch the fish under the moonlight. Abhay had no option but to follow.
Tia had a deep fascination with everything living in the water. She could watch them swim for hours and not get bored.
At that moment Khushi knew why Abhay was fond of feeding the fish, but quietly continued to listen to him.
Catching hold of her, he held her in his arms. Standing under a lamppost on the wooden deck, Abhay looked at her face shining under the bright yellow light. Breathing heavily with mischief in her eyes, she dared him to make a move without saying a word.
Finding the courage, and before he could overthink the whole situation, he went in for a kiss. Playing hard to get, she pushed him back but lost her balance. Tipping over, she fell into the lake.
The wooden deck was three feet above the water. Abhay jumped behind her to make sure she was ok.
The lake was shallow, but the water was freezing cold. She held him tightly, as she shivered. He held her face and looked into her eyes with intent. Looking back at him, she reminded him about the old saying about the lake and people kissing there.
With no expression on his face, he moved closer to her enticing lips. He wanted her!
Just before he could kiss her, hearing them fall inside the lake, guards came looking. Pointing their torch at them, they screamed at them to come out.
The guards were annoying. Abhay and Tia had no option but to walk out of the lake. The trance they were in was broken; the moment was gone. The kiss did not happen.
Deep inside, Abhay felt glad that the guards had come; his old fear about falling in love had propped back up. Walking quietly back to his apartment, his insecurities about commitment, screamed at him for what he was about to do. If he had kissed her at the lake, there was no turning back.
He wanted her, but he was scared that sooner or later she would want a relationship. Relationship would require commitment and that would eventually lead to marriage. She, on the other hand, was sad. For her, life was all about the little precious moment, but she did not let him know how she felt.
After the incident at the lake, nothing happened between them that night. It passed away like many other nights, when they could do nothing but fantasize. Neither of them talked about it; they pretended that what happened that night was perfectly normal; they were just good friends and friends don't do stupid things.
Soon after that night they both got busy with end-of-semester coursework and exams. They hung out often, mostly just studying and giving each other company, but nothing more. Then came the long winter; Tia went back home for vacations, while Abhay stayed back on campus, to work on some projects that had been pending due to heavy semester coursework.
Moving away from what happened at the lake, Abhay picked up another picture that looked a lot more happy. In the photograph, dressed like clowns, Tia, Abhay and their group of friends were standing at Times square, New York. They were in the midst of an ocean of cheering crowd; there was confetti falling on them.
Picking up the story from where he stopped, he told Khushi that once the winter break started in early December, for the first three weeks Abhay and Tia talked once every few days; they missed each other’s company. There were no plans of meeting before the next semester started in mid-January.
The only plan Abhay had for the holidays was to go to New York for a few days to celebrate New Year’s with friends. During the same time, Tia had made plans with her extended family in San Francisco.
On New Year’s eve, while he sat drinking with Jolly, Nathan, Charlie and a few friends who lived in Manhattan, he got a message from Tia. She wrote:
Tia: "I have got a surprise for you tonight. Maybe you will get lucky."
Bugsy: “How are you going to surprise me from San Francisco?”
Tia: “Do you want your surprise or not?”
He asked her what the surprise was, and she told him that she was going to make his New Year’s Eve extra special. Not sure what she was talking about, he told her to explain. She responded by telling him that in order to get his surprise he had to meet her face to face.
Tia was in town with her friends to celebrate New Year’s eve. She had brought Precious and her other sorority sisters along to surprise Abhay.
All the girls wanted to meet up and go to Times square together. Supposedly Jolly and Nathan already knew about the whole plan and Abhay was the only one kept in the dark.
Later he found out that Jolly and Miranda had planned the surprise, and Nathan had been an accomplice. He was having a little affair with Soph
ie that no one knew about until that evening.
The girls came over to Abhay’s friend’s place for a few drinks. The plan was to head-out to the city together. Precious brought a guy along with her to everyone’s dismay.
Not too excited with the scenario, Abhay instructed all his friends to make them feel welcomed.
Tia had planned for everyone to get dressed-up as clowns for the night before they hit the streets. From funnel caps, colourful markup, all the way to red round clowns’ nose. She had gotten all the essentials required to make sure they stood out in the New Year's Eve crowd.
New Year’s was a festive time and themed dressing was common. She convinced all the boys and girls to be a sport.
As the clock ticked past 8 pm, a bunch of drunken clowns hit the streets of Manhattan. Laughing, dancing and surprising the tourists with their frolics, they posed for pictures. They slowly stumbled ahead; their destination was to reach ‘One Times square’ on the intersection of 42nd Street and Broadway in Manhattan. That was the place from where the famous ‘New Year's Eve Ball’ was going to be dropped. A lightning ball, falling from the top of a skyscraper: it was a historical moment, and they wanted to be there to witness it.
The energetic crowd, the electrifying atmosphere, the flashing lights, the loud trumpets: the setting was just perfect for a memorable New Year's Eve. People from all around the world had gathered in that one-kilometer radius around Times square. Diversity was at its peak that evening; people representing every single country seemed to have swarmed down on Manhattan.
It was beautiful everywhere and everyone was out-of-control in a very controlled way.
The police, some in cars, some on horses and the rest on foot, patrolled the lanes to ensure decorum and prevent any disorderly behaviour. Their vigilance looked strict but unnecessary. No one was in a mood to fight; everyone just wanted to drink, laugh and be merry.
Some people were dressed in costumes, and some were in traditional attires; some were drinking and dancing, while some were trying to capture the moment in their cameras. Moving in the same direction, everyone enjoyed the music playing at every street corner. That night, the entire crowd had one common goal: to reach One Times square to see the famous ball drop at midnight.
Nathan made out with Sophie on a random boulevard. Walking slowly, Jolly shared an ice-cream with Miranda that just didn't seem to finish on that cold New York night. Charlie, on the other hand, was walking with and was in deep talks with a Japanese girl he had befriended that night. Precious flirted with the boy-toy she had brought along. Abhay’s friends from New York were busy with their own antics. Abhay and Tia had been left alone, and it seemed intentional.
Tia walked with Abhay, clinging on to his hand. Her head resting on his shoulder, she admired the brightly lit billboards with her big twinkling eyes. Even though she had practically lived in the US her entire life, she was never adventurous enough to make it to the mecca for tourists, New York, especially on the New Year's Eve night.
That year, she had the right company and had a good reason to be there: she wanted to surprise Abhay and spend the special evening with him.
It was a magical night.
Slowly they made their way towards the famous building, saying hello to random people and dancing to musical beats of drums and bongo, and intense tunes of the saxophones. Drinking from inconspicuous liquor bottles, hidden inside brown bags, they snacked on popcorn and candy-cane.
As they went down Boulevard Avenue and got closer to 42nd Street, the crowd swelled in numbers. By the 32nd street, the roads were jam-packed. Wanting to get as close to the 42nd street, they slowly pushed their way through. No one seemed to mind letting a bunch of happy-go-lucky clowns get ahead.
By the time the clock hit 11:50 pm, they had made it all the way up to the barricades around the building from where the ball was to drop. Standing at Times Square, surrounded by thousands of screaming and cheering people from around the world, they could see the ball hanging from the top of the building. More than six feet in diameter, weighing more than thousand pounds and studded with halogen lights, the ball was going to descend and mark the start of a new year.
Abhay and Tia stood close together, surrounded by their friends. The below zero-degree weather felt heated-up with anticipation. Tia held his hands tightly as he finished the last few sips of scotch left in his bottle. Screaming out loud, they all waited and looked up at the mystical ball.
Finally, when the clock hit 11:59 pm, the big crystal ball lit up with a million neon lights. The crowd erupted into chanting out every passing second and cheering the descending ball. Waving their hands in the air, jumping on their feet, everyone looked at the digital clock that ticked slowly, making every second count.
Everyone was screaming in-sync:
Twelve, Eleven, Ten, Nine, Eight, Seven, Six, Five, Four, Three, Two… One! Happy New Year!!
Without thinking twice, Tia looked at Abhay and went in for a kiss. With firecrackers lighting the sky and glittering confetti showering upon them, the moment came to a standstill. Perfectly timed, it was a moment out of a fairytale.
Burning with desire, caressing her soft lips with his, the New Year Eve’s kiss was magical. Like long lost lovers meeting after a lifetime, they held each other and expressed their deepest emotions in front of the whole world.
As they held on to each other, the cheering crowd faded away, and the whistling bells went silent. All he could hear was her breathing loudly, and their lips wrestling it out. They had been waiting for a long, long time.
In that moment, neither of them cared about the consequence. It did not matter that they were not dating and what others would think. She did not care that he had not asked her out yet; he was not bothered about the commitment required to be in a relationship. In that moment, they just wanted to be one and let go of all apprehensions.
As everyone around Times Square kissed and celebrated the start of a new year, to time it perfectly, it started snowing. Flakes of puffy white snow started falling from heaven. Unconcerned about what happened around them, Abhay and Tia kissed, not letting go of each other.
Their kiss went on for longer than expected. Finally, Jolly, who was extremely intoxicated, interrupted them and suggested that the lovebirds get a room. Smacking his drunken friend away, Abhay gave everyone a hug and they all wished each other a Happy New Year. Tia had tears of happiness rolling down her cheeks as she wished everyone a wonderful year ahead. She had imagined the moment many times in her head and what happened that night was just perfect.
They took a group picture at One Times Square to capture that special moment. It was the best New Year’s Eve ever.
Khushi could imagine standing at Times Square, watching Abhay and Tia locked into a loving embrace. Visualizing how that scene would have been more than a decade ago, she sketched out a deserted Manhattan with no one else but them. There was snow falling and firecrackers in the sky in her doodle. Abhay had an umbrella in one hand and held Tia with the other. He held her face, as he leaned forward to kiss her.
Proud of her sketch, she showed it to Abhay. He could not stop smiling and told her that her drawing was quite close to what it actually was like. Simply magical!
Satisfied with her caricature, she asked him, "So did you finally ask her out?"
Abhay shook his head. He said that between them, it never felt important. It was like an unsaid relationship they were in. They both unknowingly depended on each other and were inseparable as friends. Nothing else mattered to them at that point of time.
Everyone assumed they were dating, and they did nothing to make people think otherwise. From studying together in the library to going out for parties, with every passing day, they spent more and more time together.
Being around him made her smile, and she understood him without his ever needing to say a word. As for him, she was his confidant, someone he could trust with anything.
"So what happened? What did you do?" Khushi was getting impatient; she
could not understand what held Abhay back from expressing his love to Tia. She could sense that something was going to go wrong soon.
He told her that yes they were compatible, but he was extremely stupid, not realizing what he had. He enjoyed her company and liked her a lot, but love was a scary beast for him. Being stubborn, he continued to tell himself that love was irrational, and there was no space for it in his life.
No one could understand the problem he had with love.
Back then, for him the most important thing was to be successful. All he thought of was starting his technology company and building something that would change the world. He was a dreamer who wanted to make a difference in the world and a lot of money in the process of doing it. He believed that money was the root-cause of all his problems and if he could make a lot of it, it would take care of everything.
He talked about his yacht and his private jet. He told her about how he wanted to jet set across the world, go deep-dive in the Mariana Trench, romance under the Northern Lights and ski down the Swiss Alps. Small things did not excite him; everything had to be king-sized.